The Auburn Road, by Richard F. Palmer and Kenneth E. May, traces the history of the Auburn Branch of the New York Central Railroad and its predecessor lines. The railroad started as the Auburn & Syracuse Railroad in 1834 and the Auburn & Rochester Railroad in 1836. They merged with each other and later became the Auburn Branch of the mighty New York Central. This book covers the 190-year story of the Auburn Road, from its crude beginnings, when horses drew modified stagecoaches over wooden rails, through today’s modern and aggressive Finger Lakes Railway, which rescued what was left of the line from oblivion. Instead of a trackless right-of-way, we now see 2,000-horsepower diesel locomotives, decked out in the classic New York Central “Lightning Stripe” paint scheme, busily serving both old and new freight customers. It is a railroad determined to survive and thrive.
